NEW ORLEANS, La.-If heart and guts were the criteria for which ballgames were decided, sophomore right-hander Preston Claiborne would have single-handedly lifted the Tulane University baseball team past nationally-ranked UC Irvine.

The game, however, comes down to scoring runs as the Green Wave dropped the rubber match of the three-game weekend series, 5-1, Sunday afternoon at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. Pitching two days after his father, Michael, died of a heart attack in the Dallas area, Claiborne struck out three and allowed just a pair of singles over the final 2.1 innings of Sunday's contest.

"What Preston Claiborne did today was just really special," Tulane head coach Rick Jones said. "He had to have a ton of things going on in his mind but he really pitched well. That's why I'm such a big of a fan of his - because he is a team guy through and through, and he's as hard-nosed as they come.

"As close as he and his father are, it was one of those things where I had to talk to him before and he said, 'No coach, I want to be in there. This is what I want to do.' Seeing him out there and doing what he did, I wish we could have had a big rally for him. It didn't turn out that way. It doesn't always the way you draw it up, but I sure was proud of his effort and I'm sure his dad was, too."

Junior catcher Jared Dyer went 3-for-4 and junior designated hitter Andrew Rodgers hit a home run in the eighth, but it was not enough as the Green Wave stranded nine runners on base, including four in scoring position. UC Irvine starter Christian Bergman (2-0) allowed five hits but kept the Green Wave off the scoreboard over the first 6.0 innings of the game. Matt Dufour tossed a scoreless seventh before giving up Rodgers' bomb in the eighth, and the combination of Tom Calahan and Eric Pettis were perfect the rest of the way to clinch the series for the Anteaters.

"You have to give credit to their pitching," Jones said. "We knew coming into this series that it was going to be tough to score because their numbers are so good. They came in with a 1.13 ERA. We got out-scored 11-6 over the weekend. Today was similar to yesterday in that every time we had a chance to get something going, they'd make a great pitch. We just did not swing the bats well enough to offset that."

The story of the game, however, was Claiborne, who struck out the only man he faced in the seventh to get Tulane out of a jam, fanned the first two batters he faced in the eighth, and retired the final four UC Irvine hitters. It was his longest outing of the season so far as the Dallas native continues to recover from minor elbow surgery.

"It was hard, but being around my teammates and knowing that they are my family and that they are around me, it helped me out a lot," Claiborne said. "There was nothing better for me than to be around them. I knew they all had my back and they stuck with me. (My dad) only got to see me pitch one time when we were at Rice. Now he gets to see me pitch every day."

UC Irvine got on the board early with courtesy of a two-run homer by Francis Larson in the first. Tulane starter Robby Broach (1-1) kept the Anteaters off the board over the next three innings, but Irvine doubled its run total in the fifth when left fielder Dillon Bell laid down a perfectly-placed safety squeeze bunt and centerfielder Ollie Linton laced an RBI single through the right side of the infield to make it 4-0.

The Eaters scored their final run of the day in the seventh when right fielder Sean Madigan singled to open the frame, advanced the bases on a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch, and touched the paystation courtesy of an RBI-single to right by Linton.

The Green Wave offense, meanwhile, had its chances early on. Sophomore shortstop Josh Prince and Dyer answered UC Irvine's two-run first by leading off the home half of the frame with back-to-back singles, but Bergman retired the next three batters he faced in order to get out of the inning unscathed.

Tulane had another chance to claw back into the game in the fifth when junior second baseman Seth Henry hit a leadoff single to third, Dyer reached via a two-out error and junior centerfielder Aja Barto walked. Once again, though, Bergman made a big pitch and got Rodgers to hit into a 5-4 fielder's choice leave the bases loaded.

"I think sometimes we got up there, tried to do too much, over-swing or chase balls out of the zone," Rodgers said. "Their pitchers did a good job of throwing off-speed pitches in counts we were looking for fastballs and we were swinging at them. It's a confidence thing. When you hit bottom, you just have to keep going. We're really just, as a team, trying to work out of it with a lot of hard work."

Tulane returns to action on Tuesday, March 11, when the Green Wave play host to Northwestern State at 6 p.m. at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. For tickets to that game or for information on future Green Wave athletic events, contact the Tulane University Athletics Ticket Office at 504-861-WAVE or go on-line at www.TulaneGreenWave.com.